LSAT 103 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q21

QUESTION TEXT: The companies that are the prime purchasers of…

QUESTION TYPE: Sufficient Assumption

CONCLUSION: Successful computer software can’t require users to memorize new commands.

REASONING: If users have to memorize new commands, then training will be expensive. That means prime purchasers won’t buy the software.

ANALYSIS: This is almost a good argument. But maybe you can sell successful software even if the prime purchasers don’t buy it. You could make up the lost sales by being extremely popular with many small purchasers.

This is a useful question to diagram. I’m going to start by writing words so you understand my symbols, but then switch to letters. We need to connect the premises to the conclusion:

Memorize (M) ➞ expensive (E) ➞ no prime purchasers (P)

Conclusion: not successful (S)

Letters

M ➞ E ➞ P               S

We need to connect P to S, which will connect the premises to the conclusion.

Here’s how: M ➞ E ➞ P ➞ S

The right answer can be one of these two statements below. The second is the contrapositive of the first:

P ➞ S

S ➞ P

___________

1. This doesn’t tell us that a product won’t be successful is prime purchasers don’t buy it.
2. We don’t care how expensive software is. We care how expensive it is to train people to use software.
3. CORRECT. This is the contrapositive diagram above.
4. This doesn’t help us conclude that high costs will prevent software from being successful.
5. This bland, obvious statement isn’t useful. Overall training costs don’t matter. We’re only concerned with whether new keystrokes will prevent software from being successful, by raising training costs.

Recap: The question begins with “The companies that are the prime purchasers of”. It is a Sufficient Assumption question. Learn how to master LSAT Sufficient questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.

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